The Dingo

On the last full day of my long weekend trip to Darwin, I rented a car and headed out to Berry Springs to visit the Territory Wildlife Park. It was only about a 45-minute drive from Darwin, but it felt like its own separate world.

One of the last animals I saw that day was this dingo. He looked really cute and friendly and not at all deserving of dingoes’ bad reputation. Technically, dingoes belong to a separate species than the domestic dog; however, they are an ancient species of domestic dog that has adapted over the years to live apart from people and other dogs. They are the largest predators in Australia (on land, that is) and occupy an important place in the food chain, but they’re viewed as pests by farmers and others because dingoes will attack small livestock and sheep.

I took this photo at the Territory Wildlife Park in Berry Springs, Northern Territory, Australia in May 2010.